Ratajczak Rolls to Mod Win in Door
County Speedway Opener! May 18, 2002; Sturgeon Bay, WI. - Third times the charm. Following two weeks of wet and cold, just the cold remained as the Door County Speedway was able to get their 2002 racing season underway Saturday night. The chilled crowd saw a full program spiced by a double modified roll over that was completed at 9:05...
The mods checked in with 26 cars and it was on the second lap of the consy when the cars of Rick Johnson and Layne Sours got together off turn two and both cars rolled entering turn three. Johnson went over twice with Sours ending up on the roof. Neither driver was injured but both cars were done for the night. By the first night re-draw, defending champion, Todd Dart started the main on the pole with Dan Ratajczak alongside. Dart quickly took charge and after a lone caution on lap 3, settled into the lead again hugging the inside line. Ratajczak was hooking on the outside and after a few laps, closed on the leader. For several laps, the pair ran side by side, and Ratajczak finally took over the top spot on lap 12. The leaders were pulling away from the field a bit while a three car battle raged for third. Randy LeMieux, Billy LeMieux and Jared Siefert swapped spots many times during the race. Ratajczak held on to win the season opener with Dart right behind. Randy LeMieux led the way in third with Billy next and Siefert in fifth. George Henkel rounded out the top six. Rookie, Jeff Vlies sat on the pole for the Stock Car main and set the pace for the first four laps before Pat Davister took charge. Shawn Kilgore and Larry Karcz, Jr moved right with Davister and the trio started to pull away from the pack a bit. Davister and Karcz were running to the inside and Kilgore was making the outside line work. After the mid point, the leaders strung out with Davister holding the lead. Dave Bouche and Benji LaCrosse were playing catch up when the lone caution appeared on lap 16, setting up a four lap dash. Davister was able to hold off a hard late race charge by Karcz to win his first feature of the season. Karcz took second with LaCrosse just nipping Kilgore for third place. Bouche took fifth and defending champion, Craig Paque came home in sixth. Scott Iverson took charge of the Street Stock main with defending champion, Gregg Siebold, Kevin Jandrin, James Tebon and Eddie Anschutz behind. A lap 4 caution bunched the field and on the restart, Tebon moved into the runner up spot bringing Kevin Sternard along into third. Sternard moved into the runner up spot on lap 8 and two circuits later overtook the leader. A final caution on lap 11 set up a 4 lap dash. Before the restart, Iverson had to pit for a flat tire, putting Jandrin back in the second spot followed by Tebon, defending Bomber champ, and now division rookie, Jeremy Wiitala, and Kevin Brungraber. Sternard held the top spot to collect his first feature win of the season. Jandrin and Tebon made the top three. Von Eytcheson made a late race charge to finish fourth with Wiitala and Brungraber filling in the top six. Scott Reinhardt led the opening two laps of the Bomber main before Corey Haen pulled into the top spot. The pair swapped positions several times before Haen took command of the race on lap 9. Reinhardt was the shadow to the finish with Haen collecting his first feature win of the year. Reinhardt was second, with John Knudson third. Tory Peterson, Dave Serrahn and Evan Madden rounded out the top six. Weekly Saturday night racing will continue throughout the summer at the Door County Speedway. Four divisions every week with racing starting at 6 PM. SUMMARY IMCA MODIFIED IMCA STOCK CAR STREET STOCK BOMBER |
